Dashboard User Guide

The dashboard has information about U.S. adults with and without disabilities, based on data collected from three large, nationally representative public health surveys:

• Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
• Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)
• National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 

This dashboard allows users to explore how disability interacts with other factors such as age, sex, and race/ethnicity. For example, you can view data specifically on Black adults with cognitive disabilities or women with hearing impairments. This feature helps users see where gaps or problems in health and healthcare are the largest.

The dashboard presents three main types of information:

1. Individual characteristics – ability status, disability type, age, sex, race/ethnicity
2. Healthcare access and use – such as access to a regular doctor, health insurance status, and barriers to care
3. Chronic health conditions – such as diabetes, heart disease, and other long-term conditions

The data spans the years 2016–2023 and represents the entire U.S. population.

• Researchers used SAS 9.4 software to calculate prevalence estimates.
• Sampling weights were applied to make sure results represent the entire U.S. population.
• Cross-tabulations were run to calculate prevalence estimates (percentages of people with certain health measures) and to make comparisons between groups.
• Chats and tables were made using Tableau 2025.2.1.

The dashboard reflects six disability types, defined by the American Community Survey (ACS):

1. Cognitive difficulty – “Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, does this person have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions?”
2. Hearing difficulty – “Is this person deaf or does he/she have serious difficulty hearing?”
3. Vision difficulty – “Is this person blind or does he/she have serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses?”
4. Mobility difficulty – “Does this person have serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs?”
5. Self-care difficulty – “Does this person have difficulty dressing or bathing?”
6. Independent living difficulty – “Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, does this person have difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping?”

You can email the Center for Disability Health and Wellness at CDHWdashboard@umich.edu to request an electronic codebook for each of the available datasets. The codebook shows which survey questions are used and how variables are defined and coded. 

• Researchers used SAS 9.4 software to calculate prevalence estimates.
• Sampling weights were applied to make sure results represent the entire U.S. population.
• Cross-tabulations were run to calculate prevalence estimates (percentages of people with certain health measures) and to make comparisons between groups.
• Chats and tables were made using Tableau 2025.2.1.

The dashboard reflects six disability types, defined by the American Community Survey (ACS):

1. Cognitive difficulty – “Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, does this person have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions?”
2. Hearing difficulty – “Is this person deaf or does he/she have serious difficulty hearing?”
3. Vision difficulty – “Is this person blind or does he/she have serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses?”
4. Mobility difficulty – “Does this person have serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs?”
5. Self-care difficulty – “Does this person have difficulty dressing or bathing?”
6. Independent living difficulty – “Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, does this person have difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping?”

You can email the Center for Disability Health and Wellness at CDHWdashboard@umich.edu to request an electronic codebook for each of the available datasets. The codebook shows which survey questions are used and how variables are defined and coded.